Tuesday, June 29, 2010

International Reputations

  • A Ghanaian commercial on TV for a printing company ended with: “American Quality, Chinese Prices.”

  • Whenever the medical students want to go out dancing, they never forget to include the foreigners staying in the dorms. However, I’ve only seen one female Ghanaian medical student go out with us. It’s almost always the foreigners plus Ghanaian guys. Why is that?

  • At the district hospitals I’ve visited, a handful of staff will pointedly ask if I’ve brought anything from the US with me for the hospital. They say that since I am from the US I am very rich. Little do they know that I’m leaching $60K a year just for med school and will probably never see real money until I’m at least 40!

  • A UK soccer commentator says that one of the reasons why the US lost to Ghana on Saturday was because the US was overconfident and arrogant…as usual. Apparently President Bill Clinton said that the US would win the World Cup…

  • For better or for worse, I’ve shocked the Ghanaian medical students that I can hold my own on the dance floor in clubs. When did being Asian mean not being able to dance? I think they need to spend some more time on Youtube watching AADT :)



  • I realize that stereotypes are out there, but how does this affect international relations? What do y’all make of these reputations?

    1 comment:

    1. › In Ghana, females are generally expected to stay home.
      › Getting loans is prohibitive in Ghana, so the fact that you can even borrow $60K each year for med school, unlike most Ghanaians, you still have that money available.
      › Anyone who is not black and can dance is a surprise in Ghana ...and to be fair, most foreigners who go there actually cannot, which reinforces the stereotype, however false it is overall. This is not an Asian thing.
      http://obibinibruni.org/

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